Book: The Cattle Raid of Cualnge (Tain Bo Cualnge)

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'It is that indeed that will be there,' said Cuchulainn.

Cuchulainn strikes him with his sword in his two armpits, so that
his clothes fell from him, and it did not wound his skin.

'Go then,' said Cuchulainn.


'No,' said Etarcomol.

Then Cuchulainn attacked him with the edge of his sword, and took
his hair off as if it was shaved with a razor; he did not put even
a scratch (?) on the surface. When the churl was troublesome then
and stuck to him, he struck him on the hard part of his crown, so
that he divided him down to the navel.

Fergus saw the chariot go past him, and the one man therein. He
turned to quarrel with Cuchulainn.

'Ill done of you, O wild boy!' said he, 'to insult me. You would
think my club [Note: Or 'track'?] short,' said he.

'Be not angry with me, O friend Fergus,' said Cuchulainn ... [Note:
Rhetoric, five lines.] 'Reproach me not, O friend Fergus.'

He stoops down, so that Fergus's chariot went past him thrice.

He asked his charioteer: 'Is it I who have caused it?'

'It is not you at all,' said his charioteer.

'He said,' said Cuchulainn, 'he would not go till he took my head,
or till he left his head with me. Which would you think easier to
bear, O friend Fergus?' said Cuchulainn.

'I think what has been done the easier truly,' said Fergus, 'for it
is he who was insolent.'

Then Fergus put a spancel-withe through Etarcomol's two heels and
took him behind his own chariot to the camp. When they went over
rocks, one-half would separate from the other; when it was smooth,
they came together again.

Medb saw him. 'Not pleasing is that treatment of a tender whelp, O
Fergus,' said Medb.

'The dark churl should not have made fight,' said Fergus, 'against
the great Hound whom he could not contend with (?).'

His grave is dug then and his stone planted; his name is written in
ogam; his lament is celebrated. Cuchulainn did not molest them that
night with his sling; and the women and maidens and half the cattle
are taken to him; and provision continued to be brought to him by day.


_The Death of Nadcrantail_

'What man have you to meet Cuchulainn tomorrow?' said Lugaid.

'They will give it to you to-morrow,' said Mane, son of Ailill.

'We can find no one to meet him,' said Medb. 'Let us have peace
with him till a man be sought for him.'

They get that then.

'Whither will you send,' said Ailill, 'to seek that man to meet
Cuchulainn?'

'There is no one in Ireland who could be got for him,' said Medb,
'unless Curoi Mac Dare can be brought, or Nadcrantail the warrior.'

There was one of Curoi's followers in the tent. 'Curoi will not
come,' said he; 'he thinks enough of his household has come. Let a
message be sent to Nadcrantail.'

Mane Andoi goes to him, and they tell their tale to him.

'Come with us for the sake of the honour of Connaught.'

'I will not go,' said he, 'unless Findabair be given to me.'

He comes with them then. They bring his armour in a chariot, from
the east of Connaught till it was in the camp.

'You shall have Findabair,' said Medb, 'for going against that man
yonder.'

'I will do it,' said he.

Lugaid comes to Cuchulainn that night.

'Nadcrantail is coming to meet you to-morrow; it is unlucky for
you: you will not withstand him.'

'That does not matter,' said Cuchulainn. ... [Note: Corrupt.]

Nadcrantail goes next morning from the camp, and he takes nine
spits of holly, sharpened and burned. Now Cuchulainn was there
catching birds, and his chariot near him. Nadcrantail throws a
spear at Cuchulainn; Cuchulainn performed a feat on to the point of
that spear, and it did not hinder him from catching the birds. The
same with the eight other spears. When he throws the ninth spear,
the flock flies from Cuchulainn, and he went after the flock. He
goes on the points of the spears like a bird, from each spear to
the next, pursuing the birds that they should not escape. It seemed
to every one, however, that it was in flight that Cuchulainn went
before Nadcrantail.

'Your Cuchulainn yonder,' said he, 'has gone in flight before me.'

'That is of course,' said Medb; 'if good warriors should come to
him, the wild boy would not resist ----.'

This vexed Fergus and the Ulstermen; Fiacha Mac Fir-Febe comes from
them to remonstrate with Cuchulainn.

'Tell him,' said Fergus, 'it was noble to be before the warriors
while he did brave deeds. It is more noble for him,' said Fergus,
'to hide himself when he flees before one man, for it were not
greater shame to him than to the rest of Ulster.'

'Who has boasted that?' said Cuchulainn.

'Nadcrantail,' said Fiacha.

'Though it were that that he should boast, the feat that I have
done before him, it was no more shame to me,' (?) said Cuchulainn.
'He would by no means have boasted it had there been a weapon in
his hand. You know full well that I kill no one unarmed. Let him
come to-morrow,' said Cuchulainn, 'till he is between Ochaine and
the sea, and however early he comes, he will find me there, and I
shall not flee before him.'

Cuchulainn came then to his appointed meeting-place, and he threw
the hem [of his cloak] round him after his night-watch, and he did
not perceive the pillar that was near him, of equal size with
himself. He embraced it under his cloak, and placed it near him.

Therewith Nadcrantail came; his arms were brought with him in a
wagon.

'Where is Cuchulainn?' said he.

'There he is yonder,' said Fergus.

'It was not thus he appeared to me yesterday,' said Nadcrantail.

'Are you Cuchulainn?'

'And if I am then?' said Cuchulainn.

'If you are indeed,' said Nadcrantail, 'I cannot bring the head of
a little lamb to camp; I will not take the head of a beardless
boy.'

'It is not I at all,' said Cuchulainn. 'Go to him round the hill.'

Cuchulainn comes to Loeg: 'Smear a false beard on me,' said he;
'I cannot get the warrior to fight me without a beard.' It was done
for him. He goes to meet him on the hill. 'I think that more
fitting,' said he.

'Take the right way of fighting with me,' said Nadcrantail.

'You shall have it if only we know it,' said Cuchulainn.

'I will throw a cast at you,' said Nadcrantail, 'and do not avoid
it.'

'I will not avoid it except on high,' said Cuchulainn.

Nadcrantail throws a cast at him; Cuchulainn leaps on high before
it.

'You do ill to avoid my cast,' said Nadcrantail.

'Avoid my throw then on high,' said Cuchulainn.

Cuchulainn throws the spear at him, but it was on high, so that
from above it alighted in his crown, and it went through him to the
ground.

'Alas! it is you are the best warrior in Ireland!' said Nadcrantail.
'I have twenty-four sons in the camp. I will go and tell them what
hidden treasures I have, and I will come that you may behead me,
for I shall die if the spear is taken out of my head.'

'Good,' said Cuchulainn. 'You will come back.'

Nadcrantail goes to the camp then. Every one comes to meet him.

'Where is the madman's head?' said every one.

'Wait, O heroes, till I tell my tale to my sons, and go back that I
may fight with Cuchulainn.'

He goes thence to seek Cuchulainn, and throws his sword at
Cuchulainn. Cuchulainn leaps on high, so that it struck the pillar,
and the sword broke in two. Then Cuchulainn went mad as he had done
against the boys in Emain, and he springs on his shield therewith,
and struck his head off. He strikes him again on the neck down to
the navel. His four quarters fall to the ground. Then Cuchulainn
said this:

'If Nadcrantail has fallen,
It will be an increase to the strife.
Alas! that I cannot fight at this time
With Medb with a third of the host.'


HERE IS THE FINDING OF THE BULL ACCORDING TO THIS VERSION:

It is then that Medb went with a third of the host with her to Cuib
to seek the Bull; and Cuchulainn went after her. Now on the road of
Midluachair she had gone to harry Ulster and Cruthne as far as Dun
Sobairche. Cuchulainn saw something: Bude Mac Bain from Sliab
Culinn with the Bull, and fifteen heifers round him; and his force
was sixty men of Ailill's household, with a cloak folded round
every man. Cuchulainn comes to them.

'Whence have you brought the cattle?' said Cuchulainn.

'From the mountain yonder,' said the man.'

'Where are their cow-herds?' said Cuchulainn.

'He is as we found him,' said the man.

Cuchulainn made three leaps after them to seek speech with them as
far as the ford. It is there he said to the leader:

'What is your name?' said he.

'One who fears you not(?) and loves you not; Bude Mac Bain,' said
he.

'This spear at Bude!' said Cuchulainn. He hurls at him the javelin,
so that it went through his armpits, and one of the livers broke in
two before the spear. He kills him on his ford; hence is Ath Bude.
The Bull is brought into the camp then. They considered then that
it would not be difficult to deal with Cuchulainn, provided his
javelin were got from him.


_The Death of Redg the Satirist_

It is then that Redg, Ailill's satirist, went to him on an errand
to seek the javelin, that is, Cuchulainn's spear.

'Give me your spear,' said the satirist.

'Not so,' said Cuchulainn; 'but I will give you treasure.'

'I will not take it,' said the satirist.

Then Cuchulainn wounded the satirist, because he would not accept
from him what he offered him, and the satirist said he would take
away his honour unless he got the javelin. Then Cuchulainn threw
the javelin at him, and it went right through his head.

'This gift is overpowering (?),' said the satirist. Hence is Ath
Tolam Set.

There was now a ford east of it, where the copper of the javelin
rested; Humarrith, then, is the name of that ford. It is there that
Cuchulainn killed all those that we have mentioned in Cuib; i.e.
Nathcoirpthe at his trees; Cruthen on his ford; the sons of the
Herd at their cairn; Marc on his hill; Meille on his hill; Bodb in
his tower; Bogaine in his marsh (?).

Cuchulainn turned back to Mag Murthemne; he liked better to defend
his own home. After he went, he killed the men of Crocen (or
Cronech), i.e. Focherd; twenty men of Focherd. He overtook them
taking camp: ten cup-bearers and ten fighting-men.

Medb turned back from the north when she had remained a fortnight
ravaging the province, and when she had fought a battle against
Findmor, wife of Celtchar Mac Uthidir. And after taking Dun
Sobairche upon her, she brought fifty women into the province of
Dalriada. Wherever Medb placed a horse-switch in Cuib its name is
Bile Medba [Note: i.e. Tree of Medb]; every ford and every hill by
which she slept, its name is Ath Medba and Dindgna Medba.

They all meet then at Focherd, both Ailill and Medb and the troop
that drove the Bull. But their herd took their Bull from them, and
they drove him across into a narrow gap with their spear-shafts on
their shields(?). [Note: A very doubtful rendering.] So that the
feet of the cattle drove him [Note, i.e. Forgemen.] through the
ground. Forgemen was the herd's name. He is there afterwards, so
that that is the name of the hill, Forgemen. There was no annoyance
to them that night, provided a man were got toward off Cuchulainn
on the ford.

'Let a sword-truce be asked by us from Cuchulainn,' said Ailill.

'Let Lugaid go for it,' said every one.

Lugaid goes then to speak to him.

'How am I now with the host?' said Cuchulainn.

'Great indeed is the mockery that you asked of them,' said Lugaid,
'that is, your women and your maidens and half your cattle. And
they think it heavier than anything to be killed and to provide you
with food.'

A man fell there by Cuchulainn every day to the end of a week.
Fair-play is broken with Cuchulainn: twenty are sent to attack him
at one time; and he killed them all.

'Go to him, O Fergus,' said Ailill, 'that he may allow us a change
of place.'

They go then to Cronech. This is what fell by him in single combat
at this place: two Roths, two Luans, two female horse messengers,
[Note: Or 'female stealers.' (O'Davoren.)] ten fools, ten
cup-bearers, ten Ferguses, six Fedelms, six Fiachras. These then
were all killed by him in single combat. When they pitched their
tents in Cronech, they considered what they should do against
Cuchulainn.

'I know,' said Medb, 'what is good in this case: let a message be
sent from us to ask him that we may have a sword-truce from him
towards the host, and he shall have half the cattle that are here.'

This message is taken to him.

'I will do this,' said Cuchulainn, 'provided the compact is not
broken by you.'


_The Meeting of Cuchulainn and Findabair_

'Let an offer go to him,' said Ailill, 'that Findabair will be
given to him on condition that he keeps away from the hosts.'

Mane Athramail goes to him. He goes first to Loeg.

'Whose man are you?' said he.

Loeg does not speak to him. Mane spoke to him thrice in this way.

'Cuchulainn's man,' said he, 'and do not disturb me, lest I strike
your head off.'

'This man is fierce,' said Mane, turning from him. He goes then to
speak to Cuchulainn. Now Cuchulainn had taken off his tunic, and
the snow was round him up to his waist as he sat, and the snow
melted round him a cubit for the greatness of the heat of the hero.

Mane said to him in the same way thrice, 'whose man was he?'

'Conchobar's man, and do not disturb me. If you disturb me any
longer, I will strike your head from you as the head is taken from
a blackbird.'

'It is not easy,' said Mane, 'to speak to these two.'

Mane goes from them then and tells his tale to Ailill and Medb.

'Let Lugaid go to him,' said Ailill, 'and offer to him the maiden.'

Lugaid goes then and tells Cuchulainn that.

'O friend Lugaid,' said Cuchulainn, 'this is a snare.'

'It is the king's word that has said it,' said Lugaid; 'there will
be no snare therefrom.'

'Let it be done so,' said Cuchulainn.

Lugaid went from him therewith, and tells Ailill and Medb that
answer.

'Let the fool go in my form,' said Ailill, 'and a king's crown on
his head, and let him stand at a distance from Cuchulainn lest he
recognise him, and let the maiden go with him, and let him betroth
her to him, and let them depart quickly in this way; and it is
likely that you will play a trick on him thus, so that he will not
hinder you, till he comes with the Ulstermen to the battle.'

Then the fool goes to him, and the maiden also; and it was from a
distance he spoke to Cuchulainn. Cuchulainn goes to meet them. It
happened that he recognised by the man's speech that he was a fool.
He threw a sling stone that was in his hand at him, so that it
sprang into his head and brought his brains out. Then he comes to
the maiden, cuts her two tresses off, and thrusts a stone through
her mantle and through her tunic, and thrusts a stone pillar
through the middle of the fool. There are their two pillars there:
the pillar of Findabair, and the fool's pillar.

Cuchulainn left them thus. A party was sent from Ailill and Medb to
seek out their folk, for they thought they were long; they were
seen in this position. All this was heard throughout the camp.
There was no truce for them with Cuchulainn afterwards.


_The Combat of Munremar and Curoi_

When the hosts were there in the evening; they saw that one stone
lighted on them from the east, and another from the west to meet
it. They met in the air, and kept falling between Fergus's camp,
and Ailill's, and Era's. [Note: Or Nera?] This sport and play went
on from that hour to the same hour next day; and the hosts were
sitting down, and their shields were over their heads to protect
them against the masses of stones, till the plain was full of the
stones. Hence is Mag Clochair. It happened that Curoi Mac Daire did
this; he had come to help his comrades, and he was in Cotal over
against Munremar Mac Gerrcind. He had come from Emain Macha to help
Cuchulainn, and he was in Ard Roich. Curoi knew that there was no
man in the host who could withstand Munremar. So it was these two
who had made this sport between them. They were asked by the host
to be quiet; then Munremar and Curoi make peace, and Curoi goes to
his house and Munremar to Emain Macha. And Munremar did not come
till the day of the battle; Curoi did not come till the combat with
Fer Diad.


'Speak to Cuchulainn,' said Medb and Ailill, 'that he allow us
change of place.'

It is granted to them then, and they change the place. The weakness
of the Ulstermen was over then. For when they awoke from their
suffering, some of them kept coming on the host, that they might
take to slaying them again.


_The Death of the Boys_

Then the boys of Ulster had consulted in Emain Macha.

'Wretched indeed,' said they, 'for our friend Cuchulainn to be
without help.'

'A question indeed,' said Fiachna Fulech Mac Fir-Febe, own brother
to Fiacha Fialdama Mac Fir-Febe, 'shall I have a troop among you,
and go to take help to him therefrom?'

Three fifties of boys go with their playing-clubs, and that was a
third of the boys of Ulster. The host saw them coming towards them
across the plain.

'A great host is at hand to us over the plain,' said Ailill.

Fergus goes to look at them. 'Some of the boys of Ulster that,'
said he; 'and they come to Cuchulainn's help.'

'Let a troop go against them,' said Ailill, 'without Cuchulainn's
knowledge; for if they meet him, you will not withstand them.'

Three fifties of warriors go to meet them. They fell by one another
so that no one escaped alive of the abundance(?) of the boys at Lia
Toll. Hence it is the Stone of Fiachra Mac Fir-Febe; for it is
there he fell.


'Make a plan,' said Ailill.

'Ask Cuchulainn about letting you go out of this place, for you
will not come beyond him by force, because his flame of valour has
sprung.'

For it was customary with him, when his flame of valour sprang in
him, that his feet would go round behind him, and his hams before;
and the balls of his calves on his shins, and one eye in his head
and the other out of his head; a man's head could have gone into
his mouth. Every hair on him was as sharp as a thorn of hawthorn,
and a drop of blood on each hair. He would not recognise comrades
or friends. He would strike alike before and behind. It is from
this that the men of Connaught gave Cuchulainn the name Riastartha.


_The Woman-fight of Rochad_

Cuchulainn sent his charioteer to Rochad Mac Fatheman of Ulster,
that he should come to his help. Now it happened that Findabair
loved Rochad, for he was the fairest of the warriors among the
Ulstermen at that time. The man goes to Rochad and told him to come
to help Cuchulainn if he had come out of his weakness; that they
should deceive the host, to get at some of them to slay them.
Rochad comes from the north with a hundred men.

'Look at the plain for us to-day,' said Ailill.

'I see a troop coming over the plain,' said the watchman, 'and a
warrior of tender years among them; the men only reach up to his
shoulders.'

'Who is it yonder, O Fergus?' said Ailill.

'Rochad Mac Fatheman,' said he, 'and it is to help Cuchulainn he
comes.'

'I know what you had better do with him,' said Fergus. 'Let a
hundred men go from you with the maiden yonder to the middle of the
plain, and let the maiden go before them; and let a horseman go to
speak to him, that he come alone to speak with the maiden, and let
hands be laid on him, and this will keep off (?) the attack of his
army from us.'

This is done then. Rochad goes to meet the horseman.

'I have come from Findabair to meet you, that you come to speak
with her.'

He goes then to speak with her alone. The host rushes about him
from every side. He is taken, and hands are laid on him. His force
breaks into flight. He is let go then, and he is bound over not to
go against the host till he should come together with all Ulster.
It was promised to him that Findabair should be given to him, and
he returned from them then. So that that is Rochad's Woman-fight.


_The Death of the Princes_ [Note: Or 'royal mercenaries.']

'Let a sword-truce be asked of Cuchulainn for us,' said Ailill and
Medb.

Lugaid goes on that errand, and Cuchulainn grants the truce.

'Put a man on the ford for me to-morrow,' said Cuchulainn.

There were with Medb six princes, i.e. six king's heirs of the
Clanna Dedad, the three Blacks of Imlech, and the three Reds of
Sruthair.

'Why should we not go against Cuchulainn?' said they.

They go next day, and Cuchulainn slew the six of them.


_The Death of Cur_

Then Cur Mac Dalath is besought to go against Cuchulainn. He from
whom he shed blood, he is dead before the ninth day.

'If he slay him,' said Medb, 'it is victory; and though it be he
who is slain, it is removing a load from the host: for it is not
easy to be with him in regard to eating and sleeping.'

Then he goes forth. He did not think it good to go against a
beardless wild boy.

'Not so(?) indeed,' said he, 'right is the honour (?) that you give
us! If I had known that it was against this man that I was sent, I
would not have bestirred myself to seek him; it were enough in my
opinion for a boy of his own age from my troop to go against him.'

'Not so,' said Cormac Condlongas; 'it were a marvel for us if you
yourself were to drive him off.'

'Howbeit,' said he, 'since it is on myself that it is laid you
Shall go forth to-morrow morning; it will not delay me to kill the
young deer yonder.'

He goes then early in the morning to meet him; and he tells the
host to get ready to take the road before them, for it was a clear
road that he would make by going against Cuchulainn.


_This is the Number of the Feats_

He went on that errand then. Cuchulainn was practising feats at
that time, i.e. the apple-feat, the edge-feat, the supine-feat, the
javelin-feat, the ropefeat, the ---- feat, the cat-feat, the hero's
salmon[-leap?], the cast ----, the leap over ----, the noble
champion's turn, the _gae bolga_, the ---- of swiftness, the
wheel-feat, the ----, the feat on breath, the mouth-rage (?), the
champion's shout, the stroke with proper adjustment, the
back-stroke, the climbing a javelin with stretching of the body on
its point, with the binding (?) of a noble warrior.

Cur was plying his weapons against him in a fence(?) of his shield
till a third of the day; and not a stroke of the blow reached
Cuchulainn for the madness of the feats, and he did not know that a
man was trying to strike him, till Fiacha Mac Fir-Febe said to him:
'Beware of the man who is attacking you.'

Cuchulainn looked at him; he threw the feat-apple that remained in
his hand, so that it went between the rim and the body of the
shield, and went back through the head of the churl. It would be in
Imslige Glendanach that Cur fell according to another version.

Fergus returned to the army. 'If your security hold you,' said he,
'wait here till to-morrow.'

'It would not be there,' said Ailill; 'we shall go back to our
camp.'

Then Lath Mac Dabro is asked to go against Cuchulainn, as Cur had
been asked. He himself fell then also. Fergus returns again to put
his security on them. They remained there until there were slain
there Cur Mac Dalath, and Lath Mac Dabro, and Foirc, son of the
three Swifts, and Srubgaile Mac Eobith. They were all slain there
in single combat.


_The Death of Ferbaeth_

'Go to the camp for us, O friend Loeg' [said Cuchulainn], 'and
consult Lugaid Mac Nois, descendant of Lomarc, to know who is
coming against me tomorrow. Let it be asked diligently, and give
him my greeting.'

Then Loeg went.

'Welcome,' said Lugaid; 'it is unlucky for Cuchulainn, the trouble
in which he is, alone against the men of Ireland. It is a comrade
of us both, Ferbaeth (ill-luck to his arms!), who goes against him
to morrow. Findabair is given to him for it, and the kingdom of his
race.'

Loeg turns back to where Cuchulainn is.

He is not very joyful over his answer, my friend Loeg,' said
Cuchulainn.

Loeg tells him all that. Ferbaeth had been summoned into the tent
to Ailill and Medb, and he is told to sit by Findabair, and that
she should be given to him, for he was her choice for fighting with
Cuchulainn. He was the man they thought worthy of them, for they
had both learned the same arts with Scathach. Then wine is given to
him, till he was intoxicated, and he is told, 'They thought that
wine fine, and there had only been brought the load of fifty
wagons. And it was the maiden who used to put hand to his portion
therefrom.'

'I do not wish it,' said Ferbaeth; 'Cuchulainn is my foster-brother,
and a man of perpetual covenant with me. Nevertheless I will go
against him to-morrow and cut off his head.'

'It will be you who would do it,' said Medb.

Cuchulainn told Loeg to go to meet Lugaid, that he should come and
speak with him. Lugaid comes to him.

'So Ferbaeth is coming against me to-morrow,' said Cuchulainn.

'He indeed,' said Lugaid.

'An evil day!' said Cuchulainn; 'I shall not be alive therefrom.
Two of equal age we, two of equal deftness, two equal when we meet.
O Lugaid, greet him for me; tell him that it is not true valour to
come against me; tell him to come to meet me to-night, to speak
with me.'

Lugaid tells him this. When Ferbaeth did not avoid it, he went that
night to renounce his friendship with Cuchulainn, and Fiacha Mac
Fir-Febe with him. Cuchulainn appealed to him by his foster-brotherhood,
and Scathach, the foster-mother of them both.

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